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US 5,861,877 AGranted
Electric pen that functions as hand-held printer with multiple colors and adjustable print area
AssigneeBrother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsShigeru Kagayama, Takemi Yamamoto
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An electric pen is used as a data input/output device with the same feel as though writing on paper with an ordinary pen. The electric pen can be used in conjunction with an external data processor, such as a compact portable electric note book. Hand written characters inputted by the electric pen is data processed in the external data processor and characters can be printed in a designated print area on paper or the like in print form.
Claims19
An electric pen having a data input mode and a data output mode, the electric pen comprising:
- a body holdable by a user and positionally movable by the user to draw images when the electric pen is in the data input mode, said body having an internal space;
- a position detector that measures positional displacement and speed of said body that accompanies movement of said body by the user to draw said images, said position detector producing a signal based on the measured positional displacement and speed of said body;
- signal detection means for detecting the signal produced by said position detector based on the measured positional displacement and speed of said body;
- and
- printing means for printing said images based on the signal detected by said signal detection means when the electric pen is in the data output mode, said printing means being disposed in the internal space of said body.
2 more elements
An electric pen having a data input mode and a data output mode, the electric pen comprising:
- a body holdable by a user and positionally movable by the user over a surface to draw images when the electric pen is in the data input mode, the body having an internal space;
- a position detector that measures positional displacement and speed of the body that accompanies movement of the body by the user to draw the images, the position detector producing a signal based on the measured positional displacement and speed of the body;
- a signal detector that detects the signal produced by the position detector based on the measured positional displacement and speed of the body;
- and
- a printing mechanism disposed in the internal space of the body that prints the images based on the signal detected by the signal detector when the electric pen is in the data output mode.
2 more elements
In combination:
- an external data processor;
- and
- an electric pen having a data input mode and a data output mode, the electric pen comprising:
- a body holdable by a user and positionally movable by the user over a surface to draw images when the electric pen is in the data input mode, the body having an internal space;
- a position detector that measures positional displacement and speed of the body that accompanies movement of the body by the user to draw the images, the position detector producing a signal based on the measured positional displacement and speed of the body that represents the images;
- a signal detector that detects the signal produced by the position detector based on the measured positional displacement and speed of the body;
- a printing mechanism disposed in the internal space of the body that prints the images based on the signal detected by the signal detector when the electric pen is in the data output mode;
- data transmission/reception means for transmitting data to and receiving data from the external data processor, the external data processor converting the signal detected by the signal detector into a print signal;
- and
- control means for controlling the data transmission/reception means to transmit the signal detected by the signal detector to the external data processor and to receive the print signal converted by the external data processor based on the signal, and for controlling the printing mechanism to print the images based on the print signal received from the external data processor.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.